The phenomenon of professing support for Israel while simultaneously
abetting its enemies seems to be the new fashion among Jews on the
far Left. Rather than simply coming out in the open with their
hostility, they have figured out a way to do more harm to their
brethren by calling themselves “true-blue” Zionists who are merely
concerned about Israel’s “declining and endangered” democracy.

This so-called concern extends to all facets of Israeli society and
statehood. Whether they are “worrying” about the “religious-secular
divide,” the “economic gap between rich and poor,” or the “plight of
Israeli Arabs,” this group can always be counted on to have a dim
view – and to express it at every opportunity.

But their absolute favorite point of “distress” is the one that gains
them the most brownie points among those Israel-haters who came out
of the closet as soon as the statute of limitations on anti-Semitism
ran out after the Holocaust: the “Palestinian problem.” To be more
precise, they are perturbed by the problem that Palestinians have
with Israel. That the main problem Palestinians have with Israel is
that it exists at all doesn’t feature in their discourse.

No Jewish organization is more troubled by the Palestinians’
predicament than J Street, the self-described pro-Israel, pro-peace
organization that was established in 2008 to counter-balance AIPAC’s
work on Capitol Hill, which has consisted of looking out for Israel’s
interests by representing the position of any and every Israeli
government.

J Street’s executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, wanted to change all
that. His idea was to look out not for Israel’s interests, but rather
for those of “peace in the Middle East” – a euphemism for Israeli
concessions in exchange for nothing. Well, nothing other than
terrorism, that is. But Ben-Ami and his ilk don’t see it that way. In
their view, if it weren’t for Israeli settlements, the Palestinians
would have no reason to commit acts of terror. Too bad the
Palestinians don’t actually agree with that, as has been proven
repeatedly with every Israeli withdrawal from anywhere.

But because Ben-Ami has impeccable Zionist credentials, his ability
to garner support for a two-state solution that the Palestinians keep
rejecting while undermining the Jewish state as a whole is quite an
easy task.

His late father, Yitzhak, was among the leaders of the Irgun (the
militantly anti-British Mandate underground) in pre-state Palestine.
From Tel Aviv – a city his parents were instrumental in establishing -
- Yitzhak Ben-Ami traveled to Europe right before the outbreak of
World War II as an emissary for the illegal immigration of Jews. From
there, he went to the U.S. to raise funds for the Irgun.

It was Yitzhak Ben-Ami who personally purchased the Altalena arms
ship, and who was on it when it was attacked off the coast of Tel
Aviv by the newly formed Israel Defense Forces, at the order of David
Ben-Gurion, the head of the provisional government and subsequently
Israel’s first prime minister. The clash, that has its repercussions
between Left and Right in Israel to this day, caused him to emigrate
to the U.S., asserting that he would not live in a country led by Ben-
Gurion. It is thus that his son Jeremy, now 49, came to be born in
New York.

That he grew up to be the kind of Jew whom his father would have
considered a member of Ben-Gurion’s camp is fodder more for
psychoanalysis than politics. One wonders what his father would have
made of this week’s J Street conference in Washington, titled “Making
History.”

Ben-Ami Jr. couldn’t have been too happy a camper at the event, which
consisted of a lot of wailing on the part of “well-wishers” wishing
Israel would stop being so intransigent – you know, like Peter
Beinart (there to promote his book, “The Crisis of Zionism”) and Amos
Oz (always on the lookout for junkets abroad to promote his entire
body of work).

Not only did a mere 2,500 activists attend the conference, as
compared with more than 13,000 at AIPAC’s gathering three weeks ago
at the same venue. But its raison d’etre had long ago wilted. Grad
missiles from Gaza, Fatah reconciliation with Hamas, and Iranian
nukes tend to put a damper on concepts like “peace process.”

Still, Ben-Ami and his flock were not deterred from insisting that
Congress not focus too much attention on Tehran, when there are
Israeli settlements obstructing a two-state solution to the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.

U.N Human Rights Council members in Geneva couldn’t have said it
better themselves. In fact, they just passed a resolution to
establish a “fact-finding mission on the influence of settlements on
Palestinians,” a Palestinian-initiated maneuver that has caused
Israel to suspend ties with the body and reprimand the Palestinian
Authority for engaging in cynical political moves, rather than coming
directly to the negotiating table. Yet they have no more intention of
doing so than J Street has of persuading anyone other than its
own “amen corner” that it is pro-Israel.